THE HIGHLAND WILDERNESS 179 



tell by what title the exceedingly movable evening meal 

 should be called the members of the party sometimes told 

 stories of incidents in their past lives. Most of them were 

 men of varied experiences. Rondon and Lyra told of the 

 hardship and suffering of the first trips through the wilder- 

 ness across which we were going with such comfort. On 

 this very plateau they had once lived for weeks on the 

 fruits of the various fruit-bearing trees. Naturally they 

 became emaciated and feeble. In the forests of the Ama- 

 zonian basin they did better because they often shot birds 

 and plundered the hives of the wild honey-bees. In cut- 

 ting the trail for the telegraph-line through the Juruena 

 basin they lost every single one of the hundred and sixty 

 mules with which they had started. Those men pay dear 

 who build the first foundations of empire ! Fiala told of 

 the long polar nights and of white bears that came round 

 the snow huts of the explorers, greedy to eat them, and 

 themselves destined to be eaten by them. Of all the party 

 Cherrie's experiences had covered the widest range. This 

 was partly owing to the fact that the latter-day naturalist 

 of the most vigorous type who goes into the untrodden 

 wastes of the world must see and do many strange things; 

 and still more owing to the character of the man himself. 

 The things he had seen and done and undergone often 

 enabled him to cast the light of his own past experience 

 on unexpected subjects. Once we were talking about the 

 proper weapons for cavalry, and some one mentioned the 

 theory that the lance is especially formidable because of 

 the moral effect it produces on the enemy. Cherrie nodded 

 emphatically; and a little cross-examination elicited the 

 fact that he was speaking from lively personal recollection 



